Matthias Walkner took the overall lead in the shortened “Silk Way Rally” with a victory on the longest stage. The Salzburg KTM rider leads the field in Russia with a lead of two and a half minutes over the Argentine Franco Caimi. The pilots will have to cope with two special stages before the champion is chosen in the West Siberian city of Gorno-Altaisk.
The rally, which partly runs along the historic Silk Road and is part of the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Cup, should actually lead from Russia to Mongolia and end in the capital there, but nothing will come of it now. According to the organizer, entry will be waived due to the corona situation in Mongolia. The rally entourage remains on Russian soil.
Walkner, who also managed a few river crossings on Sunday, was happy about an “unexpected” victory of the day and regretted the relocation of the route: “I would have been very happy to have driven through Mongolia. In terms of landscape, we would have expected a lot of variety and again longer stages. It’s a real, very unfortunate thing that we’re now driving the same route back in a shortened rally. “